For millions of Europeans and Americans spring spells problems. As pollen fills the air the hay-fever season starts. But for many hay-fever sufferers there may be a dirt-cheap solution. Spirulina is a supplement you can buy in every drugstore, and in 2008 Cemal Cingi of Eskisehir Osmangazi University in Turkey published a study that shows it's effective against hay fever.

In the same year American researchers found indications that spirulina may also work against hay fever in humans. When the Americans gave hay-fever sufferers 2 g spirulina daily, the sufferers' immune cells produced 34 percent less interleukine-4 than normal in test tubes. That's an indication of reduced allergic reactions. [J Med Food. 2005 Spring;8(1): 27-30.]

Study
The Turkish researchers chose a more direct approach in their study. They used 129 hay-fever sufferers, aged between 19 and 49. Half of the subjects took 2 g spirulina daily for six months [SIP]. The researchers used supplements they had made themselves, which contained dried Spirulina platensis. The other half were given a placebo containing no active ingredients.

The subjects kept a hay-fever diary in which they noted how badly they had been affected by symptoms such as nasal discharge, nasal itching and sneezing. They used scores from 0 to 3. 0 = not noticeable; 1 = mild symptoms, noticeable but not bothersome; 2 = moderate symptoms, noticeable and disturbing some of the time; 3 = severe symptoms, very disturbing some of the time and/or disturbing most of the time.

Results
The spirulina worked. The differences between the curves of the spirulina group and the placebo group shown below are statistically significant.

Conclusion
"Spirulina is clinically effective on allergic rhinitis when compared with placebo", the researchers conclude. "Further studies should be performed in order to clarify the mechanism of this effect."